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It’s not secret that I love the band Phoenix, (they’re the best) nor the fantastic paris based music blog La Blogotheque and their signature Les Concerts A Emporter, or Take-Away Shows. If you are not familiar, the basic premise is always the same, where French filmmaker Vincent Moon asks a band to play a short set, often consisting of just 2-3 songs, at an impromptu and outdoor location, usually accoutically, while he films the moment.

The Take-Away Shows are often really lovely and intimate, almost always with small surprises and little treats that can only happen with the unplanned & gentle collision of a band suddenly playing live in public spaces not typically made for such moments.

Click to watch Phoenix play live, outdoors in Paris.

A perfect case in point are the most recent 4 songs on La Blogotheque featuring the French band Phoenix, (who sing just about exclusively in English), and are perhaps better known outside of their home country than withing their native France.

In this heart melting set of 4 songs for Take-Away Shows (or more rightly Les Concerts A Emporter), quite possibly my favorite band Phoenix performs 1901 at Trocedero Square, close to the Eiffel Tower, with lots of passersby simply stopping to get an ear and eyeful of the band. There’s even a freshly married couple among the gathering crowd, and it simply couldn’t be more romantic.

Click to watch Phoenix play live, outdoors in Paris.

Phoenix then moves onto a crowded Parisian tour bus, taking seats at the back of the open upper deck and play 2 songs (Lisztomania & One Time Too Many) while the bus and it’s happily surprised tourists take a ride through Paris streets. The final show is Long Distance Call, played beautifully under a stone bridge along the Seine, complete with a sweet echos from the pigeon encrusted columns of the bridge. My favorite band + my favorite city = I’m done for.

Ahh, really, I feel like I shouldn’t even write and prattle on about this record. Instead, I just really urge you to listen. I mean, if mostly all that you dig is Black Metal, well, you might want to move along to something like Big Business’ new record. (And yes, I know that Big Business isn’t Black Metal, don’t be rude.)

But, if you’ve been on board with the previous two new releases of May here, get on the bag son. Wolfgang Amdeus Phoenix might be my favorite Phoenix record. Scratch that, it is my favorite.

Again, like the previous two records discussed (The Wooden Birds, Magnolia and Jason Lytle’s Yours Truly, The Commuter), Phoenix not only have continued the reincarnation theme that seems so prevalent this May, but more, they have done something super special, complete and lovely with their new record Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Sprite, multi-layered, poppy and webby like a giant tight rubber band, I think that you just need to listen. And, you can do so here on Myspace for free, of course. Or, you can purchase the record here on iTunes and support the band, or (gasp!) leave the house and find this record at your local indie music store.

I don’t know why this superbe French band sings in English, but I’m glad that they do. Though even if they sung en Français comme Stereolab, I’d still be singing along to every word phonetically. Phoenix is on tour in the US now (dates here), so give it a go if you’re lucky enough to live someplace where this quartet of awesome is landing for a night.

Some fun things always crop up on the Phoenix blog here, such as a few process photos from a screenprinted run of vinyl LP covers here (!) Don’t know who printed them, but I’d love to. Anyone out there know?